Hi to you!
Today I’m taking the doom and gloom out of Mercury Retrograde. Which is one of my most favorite things to do! ‘Cause retrograde fear is a product of our culture — just as the fears of resting, being unproductive, laziness, backtracking, and reflection loom mega large. So, to be cool with retrogrades is to shake your fist at The Man™ and scream “Not today Satan!”
Reminder: One-third of the population was born under a Mercury Retrograde. Meaning, one-third of us is in our element during a Mercury Retrograde. The world we live in is not necessarily built for our way of thinking but when Mercury matches us, we can thrive in ways that we may have neglected trying to adapt to this world. Intuitively, Reflectively, through osmosis.
Okay, let’s just get into it!
AH! I’m scared of this Mercury Retrograde. I’m a Capricorn and I feel it’s going to fuck up the rest of my year. Help!
A Capricorn with a lot of shit to do
This person has shared with us that they are a Capricorn Sun, Scorpio Moon, Libra Rising.
Hi Shit To Do! Can I call you Shit To Do? Thank you for this question. There is truly nothing I love more than expressing my retrograde appreciation and screaming it from the rooftops!
My first thought in reading this question is, respectfully, what are you afraid of? That’s a question between you and you. And perhaps the retrograde doom squad has done some deep work on you. To me the timing of this retrograde is a Holiday Miracle.
I don’t know if I mentioned this last week or the week before. And I refuse to go back and check, so here it is again. This is the first time since 2021 that we are beginning the New Year without the influence of a Retrograde. A new start for real, for real!
What a better opportunity to wind down, to wind up leading into January 1st.
Mercury Retrograde is a new perspective. It turns things upside down and inside out in order to see differently.
Things work differently in the upside down. Our job is to make space for it. Rather than fighting against it. Because it’s like fighting against gravity.
Let’s get mythic with it for a brief moment, shall we?
Mercury is associated with the myth of Hermes, the messenger god. Hermes is the only god that can go-between worlds, delivering messages to and from the upperworld and underworld. Guiding souls to their final resting place. Translating the languages of the gods, the humans, and the dead. Bridging the gap between communication.
When Mercury is Retrograde we navigate the underworld. Where logic is set aside for something more otherworldly.
This does not mean we are unable to function. You’ve managed to make it through hundreds of Mercury Retrogrades in your lifetime, and you will make it through hundreds more. (Maybe not hundreds, but a lot!)
But for the next three weeks your retrograde work is intentionality. Outward communication is challenged, you so respond by being impeccable with your language. Travel gets weird, so you give yourself more time to get where you’re going. Technology mishaps are common, so you consider that possibly — Did I click send on that email? Maybe I’ll try my zoom before the big meeting to make sure it’s up and running?
And in the space of reflection and contemplation, when all your questions don’t quite connect with a solid answer — use the wisest phrase there’s ever been — I don’t know. If you make up an answer and force it into being because you’re afraid of the unknown, you will expend your energy on an unformed thought, rather than letting the right information come.
So here we are. At the very beginning of a retrograde that will take us through Christmas and New Years Eve.
Listen, time is what we make it and we happen to make the Holiday Season, especially that strange 7-day void between Christmas and New Years, the most liminal space of the year. Let yourself be in the liminal, because we all are whether we want to be there or not. It’s not the season of starting a-new, so how can you use this time to look back to tie up loose ends of 2023
Here is your mantra for this Mercury Retrograde —
You know the best thing about expectations? You don’t have to have them.
Happy, happy! Merry, merry! That is my gift to you.
Shit to do, this retrograde is hitting your fourth house of privacy, past, and home. You may be feeling yourself crawling into hermit mode when you’ve got dinner parties to host and deadlines to meet. Yeah, that’s a tough contrast to balance out.
But what this is retrograde really challenging is YOU. Your conditioned expectation to be in a perpetual state of forward motion. A recipe for burnout. The formula for self-abandonment. This retrograde is calling you back home. And the fear of everything that may not get accomplished should you chose to come home may echo louder than the truth that this is a time a still, quiet, inward contemplation.
Fear yells, intuition whispers.
Years ago, my friend and colleague Colin Bedell of Queer Cosmos gave me a new perspective on this special time —
☿rx
He pointed out that the symbol of retrograde is Rx — the same symbol they use for medicine! Retrogrades are MEDICINE for our extractive culture. It’s the permission we needs to chill the fuck out.
So, with love, chill tf out. Mercury is asking that of you and I am just the humble messenger. Lower the bar for yourself to the ground and see what you can accomplish without the crushing weight of your typical should’s and supposed to’s. You may surprise yourself to see how much can get done when you relinquish the systems of pressure/oppression you create for yourself.
Just saying.
May Mercury Retrograde soften your expectations and bring you home to yourself.
May the paradox of what you want and what you need lead you to a new way of doing things.
It’s giveaway season! I do two giveaways a year, one at the Summer Solstice and one at the Winter Solstice. And we’ve arrived! All the info for how to win a FREE year ahead reading with me is found on my IG. Click the post below to check it out.
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With big warm Leo love,